Game of Homes?

[Prokofy Neva]

Now here's something interesting today.

Everyone in Bellisseria has heard of "Game of Homes" -- the Lindens even reference it when they role out new themes -- Patch asked that people NOT play "Game of Homes" to give the sims time to settle when they rolled out Fantasseria.

So I have 6 Bellisseria homes: 3 public hangouts with stamps; 1 related to a project; and 2 private residences, a trailer and a log house.

That's feels to me like 4 or 5 too many, and I used to dump them or change them every few months and not always had that many. One thing about having the stamp dispenser is that you feel you can't change it or delete it. That is, sure, you could move it or even remove it but then it makes work for people running the stamp game. And why not keep them but just refresh their content and gifts and music every now and then.

So on one residence I actually went to a lot of trouble to decorate it, put in pets, select art works, shuffle every prim -- because it was on a little pond, where I could even add a fishing game bucket (not the vendor of course). 

But then I noticed a neighbour put down snow terrain on their lot, and it lost its authentic autumn feel and it just began to feel crowded. I decided to change to Fantasseria where I understand they have seasons and even the crystals turn colours. So I dumped the lot, and headed to the account page.

It let me choose "Bellisseria" and "Fantasy" and go to a place. My understanding is that you get five tries -- abandon and change until you use up that limit, then you have to come back in...24 hours? A week? Not sure, as I usually find something tolerable in 5 tries. I know I'm not going to get the lots like the Parade of Homes matrons because I don't have all day to play Game of Thrones, nor a group of friends to  play it with. Too much work!

So I landed in my new fantasy home, and God, it was crowded. All three sides had other homes, and the fourth side was a road, but they are more narrow roads in Fantasseria. I wanted to be at least within a short walk to water. So I abandoned and rolled again.

Whoops, I got the same lot again. That can happen at slow periods, in which case you can only abandon and go away for awhile. Yes, there are automatic scripts that refresh your page for you -- the Lindens concede that and even put a notice up, "Set your page refresher to no more than 10 times per 10 minutes."

So not wanting to bother with having to download an app and attach it to Chrome etc etc I just manually refreshed -- nope, same house.

I went inworld and cleared cache.

I changed to another browser, Firestorm.

I cleared Chrome's browser cache.

I waited half an hour.

Nope, still that same house I don't want.

I put another alt on the job who doesn't have a Linden home. He landed exactly on that same crowded house lot I didn't want, too. He abandoned it.

Then...More refreshing, clearing, different browsers -- same house.

So I'm used to having certain things happen "just to me," and believe me, as William Burroughs put it so memorably, "Paranoia is having all the facts."

I'm curious whether the folks who have 50 houses in Bellisseria -- I had never heard of this until yesterday as "a thing" -- are now getting this same stall or not. Because clearly the Lindens can put an IP lock on your home search -- whether this is systemic or not isn't clear.

So at this point, I'll just save the 1024 in my buffer because of all the badly cut auctions popping up around my land on sites that in fact were NOT abandoned for years -- hey, I request a lot of those if in the view, you know? But had my neighbours on one mountain until literally the other day -- then all of a sudden I see it is purple. There goes another one! This time I was fortunate to alert a nice neighbour who is the other major owner on this certain region. He wouldn't have noticed it even logging in frequently because you have to have "show land owners" on and be alert to this new phenomenon of rushed auctions. He was grateful and bid on it and I hope he wins -- now I don't have to shoulder the tiering of land I don't need to save my other land.

 

[Eirynne Sieyes]

You kept getting the same house because you just abandoned it and nobody else picked it up or kept it. Sometimes you can wait 30 min and get it again because other people are also abandoning it. Since you have the luxury of two alts, when alt #1 gets the home you don't like, do not release it until alt #2 gets a house. At least it won't be the same house. 

Less effective, but helpful, stand in a corner of the abandoned parcel until someone gets it. Sometimes you can wait a long time.

[Joan Philbin]

this is definitely a problem, nothing more frustrating than only getting a few bites at the apple and then only the same rotten spot.

[LittleMe Jewell]

These days, when I abandon a home -- not during any sort of release -- I landmark the place.  The landmark will say Linden Home.  I don't try to get anything in the same theme until that LM no longer says Linden Home, meaning someone finally owns it.  Otherwise, the chances are probably about 99% that you'll pick it up again.

[Prokofy Neva]

Well, just to see if they are deliberately locking my house search, I checked with support. I asked if there is a limit on the number of houses you can have in Bellisseria. Answer: technically five, but as long as they are not being used abusively, you should be fine.

So they re-set the sim because it was showing to me as abandoned, but also showing as my owned premium house. Once they re-set the sim, I was able to abandon it, and select another. 

So I'll be content for now because it has one side water and a big crystal and a Bendy Tree and I don't want to be waiting 30 minutes on the corner for an elf house, my God. Actually, I didn't see any snow but I hear there is doing to be some dusting of snow? Or something. I realize you can't put snow without changing all the plants manually per sim, which is an impossible burden to place on Moles. 

At this point I don't need to put the alts all on Linden homes, my God, so much work to decorate, maintain, etc. I don't worry that there is a shortage because as I have said elsewhere, I see literally hundreds of log houses waiting to be released. Also tons even of Fantasseria homes that still have brackets but look done and could likely be released any minute.

Edited November 22, 2021 by Prokofy Neva

[Freddie Venus]

I got three. Two private and one public. I like decorating. 

[Freddie Venus]

Also I got both my amazing homes in the early hours of USA morning (am British). Just the luck of the draw I think.

[Prokofy Neva]

5 minutes ago, Madonna666 said:

Also I got both my amazing homes in the early hours of USA morning (am British). Just the luck of the draw I think.

I was up early today EST but then precisely because it's slow, it meant apparently that once I abandoned, I couldn't keep going, but had to wait until someone else took that particular lot. And that might take 30 minutes or 30 days, who knows. Unless you ask the Lindens to re-set the sim, as I discovered, but I could totally understand if they were unwilling to keep doing that over and over and for everybody. They could tell you to refresh and try again tomorrow. Also I notice this house has two stories which I think they didn't have originally? Not sure. 

[Freddie Venus]

1 minute ago, Prokofy Neva said:

I was up early today EST but then precisely because it's slow, it meant apparently that once I abandoned, I couldn't keep going, but had to wait until someone else took that particular lot. And that might take 30 minutes or 30 days, who knows. Unless you ask the Lindens to re-set the sim, as I discovered, but I could totally understand if they were unwilling to keep doing that over and over and for everybody. They could tell you to refresh and try again tomorrow. Also I notice this house has two stories which I think they didn't have originally? Not sure. 

Sometimes if you abandon the house you had it takes ages to go back into the pool if that's what you mean ? I've abandoned and hung around to see if someone claimed my old one so I didn't get it again and it's been stuck before. The house next to my log was abandoned and it took two weeks to go back but that was December last year.

[Prokofy Neva]

Also -- true story -- I was told that if you go to the sim where you want to get your Bellisseria home, and wait down in the water (because you'd want a pond one) and don't move and don't say a word, then refresh the page and suddenly dart out of the water like the Watery Tart, you will get a waterfront home on that sim.

So apparently this worked once for someone and now they think it always works. I asked the Linden on support if this was true. He said "It might work...but then it might not." Fair enough.

So, I practiced my Watery Tart dart a number of times. On BTW, first, I had to find out what a Watery Tart is, I didn't know. So it turns out, as the Hextraordinary guy Corwin told me, this is a Monty Python thing. Hextraordinary has a pond with this woman's arm with a sword that comes out which is called the Watery Tart. I have to say this was lost on me because I never liked Monty Python. I guess it's an acquired taste.

So naturally I went to Mirror Pond -- who wouldn't? it has a lovely bed of crystals. So..."B'rer Rabbit, he lay low." I waited, the DARTED up out of the water, refreshed the page and landed...on the other side of that continent.

So that didn't work. I'm on a sim that is miles and miles from Mirror Pond even if I figure out the boating.

Now that I think of it, I should have checked, were there any unoccupied waterfronts, then it might work.

[Prokofy Neva]

Oh, so wait, I am like two squares away from something called "Toad Pond." Now that doesn't have any bed of crystals on the pond floor which is what I liked about Mirror Pond but I suppose I could just visit Mirror Pond without actually having a house on it.

So Toad Pond has this little island in the center of it, with this little obelisk. When you touch it, it lights up! It activates!

Then when you click it, you go to this big castle.

So I think I will stick with this one and not risk all those things you all are saying where you wait 30 minutes or even two weeks. 

Americans should learn to be content with what they have. Our RL doorman station looks like an Amazon Warehouse Annex, and there are 4,000 people in this housing complex.

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

I really wish that they would store the location of our most recent 5 homes and not let us get one that is on that stored list.  At the very least it would keep you from picking up the same location without your "5 tries per 24-hours".

[yestothis]

I really wish it wasn’t 5. There’s no reason for it except to prevent server overload, but maybe implement that during new releases only. 

[Mercedes Avon]

Getting the same house over and over again use to happen to me a lot. Over time, I learned (and nice people taught me) how to make sure I am not rolling when the previous house I just abandoned is still on the land page. @LittleMe Jewellmentioned one way, and I do this at times. Most of the time, I look at my teleport history and watch for the abandoned house to be picked up before rolling again.

[Prokofy Neva]

When we had the plain Linden homes of the first iteration, I don't remember this issue. You hopped around 5 houses and that was it, then came back the next day.

With the Bellisseria homes, I don't remember it being this bad, but then, I don't usually change homes that much. My deal-breaker is if there are those butterfly treadmills in the view. I so hate them that I will leave a house over them. Then I like them to have at least 2-3 sides of protection and water at least nearby if not ON water. And many houses fit that criteria so I just keep what I had. 

The only possible reason I could see the Lindens wanting to do this is if they thought people have abandoners' remorse, and want to go back where they were. But instead, it seems more of a break on skipping around to find a better house. And you could be stuck quite some time with that one you rejected because others reject it for the same reason, too and try to get another one through simultaneous trades with friends.

[Marianne Little]

I think it is too much work to change the system. It automatically puts abandoned homes to the first slot in the house line, not the last one.

It was very annoying when it is large new releases, people abandoned their old homes, and the new regions releases were stalled until those old places was out of the line.

I am not sure if other viewers than Firestorm has teleport history, because I never use them. But the teleport history is very handy to use, I find it easier than taking landmarks and watch if they change name. The teleport history has all stored in one place

[Freddie Venus]

I think also it depends on how "rare" the house selection is maybe. Like for example houseboats still rarely appear on the land page and you are practically guaranteed to get the same one twice where as campers you can claim/abandon in quick succession and seem to receive different plots. But that might just be me and at that time on that day it's just how it was 🤣

Edited November 23, 2021 by Madonna666
Too many maybes

[LittleMe Jewell]

10 hours ago, Mercedes Avon said:

Most of the time, I look at my teleport history and watch for the abandoned house to be picked up before rolling again.

 

7 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

I am not sure if other viewers than Firestorm has teleport history, because I never use them. But the teleport history is very handy to use, I find it easier than taking landmarks and watch if they change name. The teleport history has all stored in one place

 

I always forget that my TP history is good for more than just going back to places I've been.  I need to pin this info at the top of my brain.

 

[Maitimo]

On 11/22/2021 at 4:16 PM, Prokofy Neva said:

 

It let me choose "Bellisseria" and "Fantasy" and go to a place. My understanding is that you get five tries -- abandon and change until you use up that limit, then you have to come back in...24 hours? A week? Not sure, as I usually find something tolerable in 5 tries. I know I'm not going to get the lots like the Parade of Homes matrons because I don't have all day to play Game of Thrones, nor a group of friends to  play it with. Too much work!

<snip>

Nope, still that same house I don't want.

That happened to me a lot. There are a couple of ways to avoid it:

1) Abandon, but watch the parcel name on the map and don't make another try for that theme until the parcel has been claimed by someone else.  This might be quick, or it might take a few hors, or even days.

2) If you have a premium alt available, abandon, claim the theme with your alt; likely you'll get the same parcel with the alt. Now, keeping that parcel with the alt, make another claim with your main. This guarantees you'll get a different parcel. Only then, abandon the alt's parcel.

Often, once claimed the theme disappears from the page, indicating that the one you don't want is literally the only one available.

Also for the record it's 5 tries per 24 hours.

[Elena Blossom]

Please keep in mind some people name their new place 'Linden home'. Sometimes the parcel has been claimed, but the name is misleading 

[Prokofy Neva]

2 hours ago, Maitimo said:

That happened to me a lot. There are a couple of ways to avoid it:

1) Abandon, but watch the parcel name on the map and don't make another try for that theme until the parcel has been claimed by someone else.  This might be quick, or it might take a few hors, or even days.

2) If you have a premium alt available, abandon, claim the theme with your alt; likely you'll get the same parcel with the alt. Now, keeping that parcel with the alt, make another claim with your main. This guarantees you'll get a different parcel. Only then, abandon the alt's parcel.

Often, once claimed the theme disappears from the page, indicating that the one you don't want is literally the only one available.

Also for the record it's 5 tries per 24 hours.

Thanks.

Yes, I understand all this, and did it, and PS I also got the alt stuck on that same lot for days.

Because it's for days lol.

It would seem impossible to have two accounts that abandoned a lot, both stuck, if the second picked up the one the first rejected.

But that's the whole point. It didn't work that way. Both got stuck and both still showed this as their home even after abandoning it. Which is why I asked the Lindens for a re-set -- and they had to re-set the sim, it wasn't about me re-setting the cache or my browser.

Obviously, I'm not going to do that to them 5 times a day.

 

[Maitimo]

1 minute ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Thanks.

Yes, I understand all this, and did it, and PS I also got the alt stuck on that same lot for days.

Because it's for days lol.

It would seem impossible to have two accounts that abandoned a lot, both stuck, if the second picked up the one the first rejected.

But that's the whole point. It didn't work that way. Both got stuck and both still showed this as their home even after abandoning it. Which is why I asked the Lindens for a re-set -- and they had to re-set the sim, it wasn't about me re-setting the cache or my browser.

Obviously, I'm not going to do that to them 5 times a day.

 

oh that is weird then. Definitely a glitch.

[Marigold Devin]

On 11/22/2021 at 5:13 PM, Prokofy Neva said:

Also -- true story -- I was told that if you go to the sim where you want to get your Bellisseria home, and wait down in the water (because you'd want a pond one) and don't move and don't say a word, then refresh the page and suddenly dart out of the water like the Watery Tart, you will get a waterfront home on that sim.

So apparently this worked once for someone and now they think it always works. I asked the Linden on support if this was true. He said "It might work...but then it might not." Fair enough.

So, I practiced my Watery Tart dart a number of times. On BTW, first, I had to find out what a Watery Tart is, I didn't know. So it turns out, as the Hextraordinary guy Corwin told me, this is a Monty Python thing. Hextraordinary has a pond with this woman's arm with a sword that comes out which is called the Watery Tart. I have to say this was lost on me because I never liked Monty Python. I guess it's an acquired taste.

So naturally I went to Mirror Pond -- who wouldn't? it has a lovely bed of crystals. So..."B'rer Rabbit, he lay low." I waited, the DARTED up out of the water, refreshed the page and landed...on the other side of that continent.

So that didn't work. I'm on a sim that is miles and miles from Mirror Pond even if I figure out the boating.

Now that I think of it, I should have checked, were there any unoccupied waterfronts, then it might work.

I really think an avatar hanging about in a pond like a watery tart is hilariously funny and no doubt a year-round April Fools joke, though it makes me now know why I have sometimes seen a few watery tarts hanging around the ponds! 

As Brucey used to say "Good game, good game"  

[Nika Talaj]

On 11/22/2021 at 9:13 AM, Prokofy Neva said:

Also -- true story -- ...So, I practiced my Watery Tart dart a number of times. ...So that didn't work.

Ah no, you're wrong, it worked great! Because SL is an entertainment platform, and that is the funniest story I have read in a long time!  Clearly we need to throw a Watery Tart party, where everyone sets their hover height so they can dance on top of the water, and occasionally people sink below the surface, change into a watery tart outfit, and dart madly into the air when the spirit moves them.  TA-DAH!

[Prokofy Neva]

2 hours ago, Marigold Devin said:

I really think an avatar hanging about in a pond like a watery tart is hilariously funny and no doubt a year-round April Fools joke, though it makes me now know why I have sometimes seen a few watery tarts hanging around the ponds! 

As Brucey used to say "Good game, good game"  

Let me very precisely quote the Linden I asked about this ritual, whether it worked: 

"I haven't heard that - it won't hurt, but I'm afraid it won't help either :)"

But see, this one person I know got it to work once. Twice, even. I think to maximize the results you have to make sure there are empty available houses on that sim with the water before you go crouching among the reeds.